Robots have slowly been making their way into different aspects of our society, and now it looks like law enforcement might begin using robots in the near future.
At least that’s the way William Li envisioned it.
Li, co-founder and CEO of robotics company Knightscope, hoped to take security to the robotic level and essentially crowd-source security by using machines with wheels to patrol streets, sidewalks and schools and alerting residents via a mobile app of criminal behavior.
Knightscope robots have already made their way into the private security industry. They patrol parking lots, shopping centers and corporate campuses in California, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The robots can record and stream videos as well as send and store them. They can read license plates and track parked cars. They also provide thermal imaging and can detect humans in places where they’re not supposed to be.
While the company’s robots have only been used by private corporations thus far, Li hoped that in the very near future, neighborhoods could start investing in them.
The robots could notify residents about suspicious activity.
“If there is a machine-detected anomaly — like someone breaking into a car — we’re going to push a yellow or red alert to everyone nearby in the community,” Knightscope co-founder Stacy Dean Stephens said. “Instead of see something, say something, what about see something, do something?”
In time, residents would be able to submit tips via an app, Stephens added. These tips could lead to the arrest of criminals.
Stephens said that millions of people post all kinds of information to social media, and if there were a way to aggregate that data and comb through it, the probability of catching a criminal quicker would become much more likely.
It wasn’t a perfect science, but they were working on it.
No doubt the issue raises security concerns for many, but one thing’s for certain — there are robots in our future.
(via: Conservative Tribune)
